Industry 4.0: Is Switzerland Ready? Part 2

More automation, manufacturing flexibility and smarter data exchange: the Fourth Industrial Revolution is seeing an incredible increase in both digitization and the digital integration of products and parts of the value chain.

So how can companies optimize their processes and protect their data in a time when everything is part of an integrated network?

Integrated products

Improving value chain management is one of the potential levers to increasing productivity. With the intelligent integration of manufacturing processes, we may see smarter products able to self-determine a location for the next step in production depending on the availability of machinery. Meanwhile, allowing end-users to connect to their products is an important trend offering personalized solutions and significant added value. The ultimate result of digitally connecting products and processes – whether during production or post-purchase – is an immense amount of data requiring meaningful interpretation. That’s where Data & Analytics plays an increasingly important role.

Cyber security

The sweeping trend towards digitization also makes companies more vulnerable to being attacked by cyber criminals. In Switzerland alone, cyber criminality causes annual economic damages of about CHF 200 million. Generally, Swiss firms are aware of this threat. However, companies tend to count too much on technology to provide a solution and neglect the human factor. When it comes to cyber security, it’s critical to switch from a reactive to a predictive approach – that way, companies can capitalize on the long-term opportunities created by digitization.

In Part 1 I briefly discussed the decisive political framework required for Switzerland if it hopes to be successful as a business location during the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Further information:

The WEF Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos brought together leaders who have the power to make changes, achieve mutual understanding and push action forward. See the trending topics on WEFLIVE.

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